Hastin

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Hastin (हस्तिन्) is a term for elephant used in Vedic texts. Other terms for elephant include Ibha (इभ) and Vārana (वारण).

The elephant is clearly a very familiar animal fully integral to the traditional culture and environment of the Vedic people: IV.16.14 compares Indra's might to that of a mighty elephant, and at least three verses (I.64.7; 140.2; VIII.33.8) refer to a wild elephant crashing its way through the forests and bushes: in the third reference the elephant is "rushing on this way and that way, mad with heat" (GRIFFITH). X.40.4 refers to hunters following two wild elephants, I.84.17 refers to household elephants as part of the possessions of a wealthy householder, IV.4.1 refers to royal elephants as part of the entourage of a mighty king, and IX.57.3 refers to a ceremonial elephant being decked up by the people. VI.20.8 refers to battle elephants, or at least to elephants in the course of the description of a battle.[1] [archive]


ibha

The word ibha, as we saw, is an early Rigvedic word for "elephant", used in later texts as a Vedic word. It is the oldest word for "elephant", found from the oldest book 6, which gets replaced by newer words in later texts. It also has cognate forms in other IE branches. These cognate words can mean either "elephant" or "ivory", or both.

But the significant part of the cognate forms is that they are found in two variants: Vedic ibha- and Latin ebur lead to a reconstructed PIE form *(y)ebh, and Greek el-ephas (extended form el-ephant-) and Hittite la-ḫpa- lead to a reconstructed PIE form *lebh. The l-element in the second form is often tentatively attributed to a borrowing from West Asia of a West Asian word with a prefixed definite article al- as in Arabic. The consideration of the Germanic words (Gothic ulbandus, Old Icelandic ulfalde, Old English olfend 'camel' with the extended Greek form), with meaning transferred to "camel", leads to an extended reconstructed form *lebhonth- or *ḷbhonth-.

In an Indian homeland hypothesis, the elephant would be a very important animal not just from around the period of the separation and migration of the Indo-European dialects, but from long before that. The word would therefore not be just an old Rigvedic word (as its distribution in the texts shows it to be) but a very much pre-Rigvedic (and pre-PIE) word. That this is so is proved by the fact that the word ibha- has no known etymological derivation: Pāṇini does not give the etymological derivation of the word, and its meaning is given in his Uṇādi-Sūtra-s (which lists words not derived by him from verbal roots) as hastī "elephant". Usually this would be taken (in an AIT scenario) as a word borrowed by incoming "Aryan invaders" from some local language, but in this case (apart from the fact that it has cognates in other IE branches) the word is not found in any non-IE Indian language.

Therefore, in this case, the only option is that ibha- could be that rare type of Vedic word: a word so old that it has already undergone a process of Prakritization in the Rigveda. The logical pre-Prakritization form of ibha- would be *ṛbha-. If the more regularly settled meaning of *ṛbha- was "tusk, ivory" (as it is in Hittite laḫpa-, Latin ebur, Myc. Greek erepa, and one of the two meanings of Greek elephas and Rigvedic ibha-, the other meaning being "elephant" itself) the suffix in Greek elephantas and the Germanic words (ulbandus-, etc., and the related Slavic words) would be explained by the suffix -vanta/-manta: *ṛbha-vanta/manta would be "tusker".

In the Rigveda, we have a related word: ṛbhu-, which refers to a race of semi-divine artisans (identified etymologically and mythologically with the elf of Germanic mythology and folklore). As per Macdonell, the word ṛbhu- comes "from the root rabh, to grasp, thus means 'handy', 'dexterous'" (MACDONELL 1897:133). The root (due to r/l alternation in the Vedic language) has two forms in the Rigveda, √rabh and √labh, both meaning the same thing: √rabh: "to take hold of, grasp, clasp, embrace" (MONIER-WILLIAMS 1899:867) and √labh: "to take, seize, catch" (MONIER-WILLIAMS 1899:896). [A regular epithet of the ṛbhu-s is su-hastah "deft-handed" (IV.33.8; 35.3,9; V.42.12; VII.35.12; X.66.10)].

The word ibha- ~ *ṛbha- is thus also derived from the root √rabh,√labh: in this case, we have an advantage over Pāṇini in the modern comparative evidence of the word as found in other IE languages. This not only explains the Vedic etymology of the word ibha-, it also explains the PIE etymology: i.e. the l-element in the Greek and Hittite versions (and the reconstructed PIE form *lebh-). [Note that ibha, also derived from the meaning "handy, dexterous", thus actually has the same sense as the later word hastin. This is ironic since the very transparent descriptive etymology of hastin has often been used as a rather pedestrian argument for it being a "new" word coined by "invading Aryans" for a "new" animal encountered by them in India].

It also explains the dual meaning of ibha- in the Rigveda: ibha- "elephant" (*ṛbha- from √rabh,√labh), ibhya "rich" (*rabhya, *labhya): the root √labh is, in later times, regularly associated with profit, wealth and riches, and the Goddess of wealth, Lakṣmī, is regularly depicted surrounded by elephants (and even bears the names lābha-lakṣmī and gaja-lakṣmī).

[The following points in respect of the Rigvedic ṛbhu-s may also be noted, for whatever they are worth:

a) The ṛbhu-s are three in number, and their respective names are ṛbhu, vāja and vibhu. The word ṛbhu is "said […] also of property or wealth, RV.iv,37,5; viii,93,34" (MONIER-WILLIAMS 1899:226), and is translated as "wealth" in the two verses (IV.37.5; VIII.93.34) by, e.g., Wilson and Griffith. Likewise, the word vāja means "strength, vigour", and also "wealth, booty, prize", and also means "a powerful animal" as a word for "horse" - in a pre-horse environment in India, it could have indicated the elephant. The word vibhu, for what it is worth, rhymes with ṛbhu, and resembles ibha. [Note also the forms ṛbh-van and vibh-van in the Rigveda, and the forms ṛbhu-manta and vāja-vanta (both) in III.52.6 and VIII.35.15] b) The two epithets of Indra, ṛbhu-kṣaṇ and tugryā-vṛdh, are used together in VIII.45.29. c) The ṛbhu-s are said to have fashioned the steeds of Indra. In IV.37.4, a hymn to the ṛbhu-s, Indra's "horses" (i.e. vehicles) are said to be fat and corpulent (pīvo-aśva), a phrase used nowhere else. In all (admittedly) later mythology, the vehicle of Indra is the elephant].

There can be no doubt, therefore, that: 1. the word ibha- in the Rigveda means "elephant/ivory". 2. The word is an Old Rigvedic and even a proto-Indo-European word. 3. The elephant is a very important animal in the Rigveda, and an integral part of the Vedic culture, from the period of the Old Books, which, as pointed out in the beginning of this article, pertain to a period, as demonstrable from the evidence in the Rigveda itself, before the separation of the proto-Mitanni and proto-Iranian people (and even the proto-Greek, proto-Albanian and proto-Armenian people) from the Vedic Aryans.

[To speculate: the word *ṛbha/*ḷbha, from the root *labh/*rabh, may have been carried by the early migrants of the proto-Sinhalese language (along with many other archaic words like watura, "water") into Sri Lanka, maybe in the form *aliba or *aluva. The words for elephant in Sinhalese are atha (fem. athini, therefore obviously the equivalent of Vedic hastin), iba (Rigvedic ibha) and ali/aliya (used for tusk-less elephants: unlike Africa, India and southeast Asia, a majority of the elephants in Sri Lanka, almost 95% for unknown reasons, are tusk-less. Could ali/aliya be derived from *aliba, minus the iba "tusk"? The word aḷuwa in Sinhalese is the post to which an elephant is tied (the cerebral l in the word makes no difference since in most languages south of the Vindhyas, including Marathi, Sanskrit dental l rather than ḍ becomes cerebral ḷ). Curiously, the traditional elephant-training community in Sri Lanka is called paṇikkar: connect with the reference referred to earlier, in VI.20.4, which talks about Indra driving away the paṇi-s (i.e.traders, merchants) for, or from, daśoṇi]. But, as we saw, ibha- definitely means "elephant/ivory", and we can logically derive all the words from a PIE root *rebh/lebh, in the form *ṛbha/ḷbha (with an extended form with -manta/-vanta). [2] [archive]

The elephant in the Rigveda

In Rig Veda 1.84.17 and 4.4.1. and probably other instances the Rig Veda seems to refer to elephants (e.g. Bryant 2001: 323), an animal that is native to South Asia. It has been speculated that some of these verses might be references to domesticated elephants.[1] In RV 1.64.7, 8.33.8 and 10.40.4, "wild" elephants are mentioned.

Talageri writes, The elephant is clearly a very familiar animal fully integral to the traditional culture and environment of the Vedic people: IV.16.14 compares Indra's might to that of a mighty elephant, and at least three verses (I.64.7; 140.2; VIII.33.8) refer to a wild elephant crashing its way through the forests and bushes: in the third reference the elephant is "rushing on this way and that way, mad with heat" (GRIFFITH). X.40.4 refers to hunters following two wild elephants, I.84.17 refers to household elephants as part of the possessions of a wealthy householder, IV.4.1 refers to royal elephants as part of the entourage of a mighty king, and IX.57.3 refers to a ceremonial elephant being decked up by the people. VI.20.8 refers to battle elephants, or at least to elephants in the course of the description of a battle. [3] [archive]

Mrga Hastin

In the Rigveda and in the Atharvaveda, the term is translated as elephant (according to Keith and Macdonell, Roth and other scholars).[2] In the Rig Veda, Mrga Hastin (animal with a hand) occurs in RV 1.64.7 and RV 4.16.14. An equivalent word for elephants in Tamil is "kaimmā" (கைம்மா) which also means "animal with a hand" (Kalithogai, 23; Purananuru, 368).

Ibha

RV 9.57.3 and RV 6.20.8 mention ibhas, a term meaning "servant, domestics, household" according to Roth, Ludwig, Zimmer and other Indologists.[3] Other scholars like Pischel and Karl Friedrich Geldner translate the term as elephant.[4] According to Sayana,[4] Mahidhara[4] and the Nirukta,[4] ibha is translated as elephant. Megasthenes[4] and Nearchos[4] also connect ibha with elephant. The term ibha is only used in the Samhitas, and especially in the Rig Veda.[5][6]

Varana

Another term that may mean elephant is "Varana" (RV 8.33.8; RV 10.40.4). According to Macdonell and Keith, "Varana" refers to elephants.[7]

The elephant in other Hindu texts

The Akananuru (27) and the Purananuru (389) state that elephants were raised and trained in ancient Tamilagam's northern boundary of Venkatam hills Tirupati. Another Sangam poem says that the elephants here were trained in a northern tongue which could well be Sanskrit.[8]

Notes

  1. RV 4.4.1, 9.57.3 (where "the people deck him like a docile king of elephants"), 6.20.8; Talageri, Shrikant (2000)
  2. Vedic Index, II, 501; II, 171
  3. In RV 4.4.1 and 6.20.8, ibha is translated as servants/attendants by Griffith.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Vedic Index, I, 79
  5. Vedic Index, I, 79.
  6. RV 1.84.17; 4.4.1; 9.57.3; and perhaps 6.20.8. Vedic Index, I, 79.
  7. Vedic Index, II, 288
  8. Mullaippattu 35, quoted from Kalavai Venkat, Review of "Early India"

References

  • Bryant, Edwin (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513777-9.
  • Macdonell, A.A. and Keith, A.B. 1912. The Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.
  • Talageri, Shrikant: The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis. 2000. ISBN 81-7742-010-0


  • Richard Pischel, Karl F. Geldner - Vedische Studien Vol. 1 -Verlag von W. Kohlhammer (1889) pp. xv-xvi

See also